David Irving, Holocaust Denial, and his Connections
to Right Wing Extremists and Neo-National Socialism
(Neo-Nazism) in Germany: Electronic Edition,
by Hajo Funke

3.2 Irving's activities for the DVU, 1981 - 1987

3.2.1.After the SRP was banned in 1952, RWE had fallen into disarray until in the early 1960s a new collective organisation, the NPD, was formed. The NPD had appointed a moderate leader, Friedrich Thielen, so as to appeal more to national conservatives, although the cadre itself was in fact far more right-wing. Subsequently in state elections they made relative gains (in the mid 1960s up to 9.8 % of the votes). However in 1969 they failed to take any seats in the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament. After this defeat the NPD faltered despite a change of leadership.30

3.2.2.As a result of the NPD's defeat in 1969 the DVU was formed in 1971, with the aim of gathering together the splinter group's alienated from the NPD and in anattempt to galvinize a fragmented RWE. The DVU thus constituted a collecting tank for the remnants of the NPD, particularly the so-called 'ewig Gestrigen', the national conservatives and old Nazis who partially or fully still identified with the ideals, ideas, and even practices of NS. Thus this organization led by Dr. Gerhard Frey had within it far right-wingers, and since the 1980s has been considered to constitute the hardcore of old RWE in Germany

3.2.3.The DVU's effectiveness lay in organizing their members through subscription to Frey's newspapers, especially the German National Newspaper [Die Deutsche Nationalzeitung - DNZ] which by 1980 had 10,000 subscribers. Another effective organizational instrument was their annual rally, normally in Passau.

3.2.4.In 1986 the DVU and NPD formulated a common election strategy and put forth a joint list for the Bavarian state election and the federal election in 1987. It then became known as the DVU - Liste D [List Germany]. The OPC described this list as having an anti-constitutional goal because the organizations concerned and Dr. Gerhard Frey's magazines were considered RWE. According to the office, Frey, through his publications, incited anti-Semitism and hatred against foreigners, distorted historical truths about NS, glorified the leading persons of the NS-system, and defamed the present day representatives of democratic parties. In their opinion the party merely paid lip service to its declared belief in democracy and in the constitutional and free democratic basis of the Federal German ['freiheitlich demokratische Grundordnung'] for tactical reasons. 31

3.2.5.This should be matched against Irving's statement that the DVU is a long standing democratic party. Neither the OPC nor academic social-science research would accept this opinion. The DVU as well Dr. Gerhard Frey's DNZ has for decades been declared RWE (or radical right wing) by the OPC. 32 As early as 1971 the OPC stated in a report that Dr. Gerhard Frey's DNZ had maintained a leading position in radical right-wing journalism. For example the 1985 VSB of Lower Saxony outlined the party platform and its profile as 'Hatred against foreigners, anti-Semitism, playing down of the national socialist terror regime and disparagement of democratic institutions and persons.'33

3.2.6.The contents of the DNZ can be described as a 'secondary anti-Semitism', designed to address the 'ewig Gestrigen' mind-set.34 For instance Jewish representatives are held responsible not only for the widespread stories about alleged atrocities committed against the Jews, but also for the fact that the Germans have to continually pay a financial, moral, and political price for the Holocaust.35 This variant of anti-Semitism is often fused with the 'old' one.

3.2.7.So-called revisionism was also identified by the OPC as playing a strategic part in DVU propaganda. Long before the debate on the 'Auschwitz-lie' was intensified by the Leuchter Report, Frey tactically relativised or even denied major NS crimes. As early as 1977 the radical revisionist Arthur Butz, who denied the existence of gas chambers in his denialist classic 'The hoax of the 20th Century' was presented with the DNZ honorary award for political victims of persecution.36 The book was also serialized in the DNZ in the same year. In 1979 the book was officially labelled as one that invoked racial hatred and played down the atrocities of the Nazi regime.

3.2.8.Finally Frey partially co-operated with more militant and extremist fringes of the RWE scene, groups whom in public he criticises for tactical reasons, namely the NPD and even RWE terrorists. 37 For example Frey co-operated with the terrorists of the Wehrsportgruppe Hoffmann, whom he used as body guards at DVU rallies in 1977. Roland Tabbert, who co-ordinated the DVU's 1987 election campaign, was later president of the anti-Semitic Anti-Zionist Action [Anti-Zionist Action - AZA] within the neo-Nazi movement. Members of the militant neo-Nazi Free German Workers' Party [Freiheitliche Deutsche Arbeiter Partei - FAP, banned in 1995] were present at the DVU annual meeting in Munich in 1986. Violent rightwing attacks against foreigners were also executed by DVU members.

3.2.9.Irving's 'soft' revisionist themes of the 1980s (Winston Churchill as a warmonger, 100,000 to 250,000 dead in Dresden, the debunking of the 'myth' of Erwin Rommel as a hero of the resistance against Hitler, the stylising of Rudolf Hess as a martyr for freedom etc.38 ) were all themes which exercised the German public mind, but in particular found a resonance in national-conservative and RWE circles. This corresponded with the DVU's political attempts to relativise the crimes of NS, particularly the question of Germany's war guilt and the Holocaust, and overlapped with the DVU's latent anti-Semitism. In short Irving was an important spokesman for the DVU to win over to their party.

3.2.10.Irving was first informed that he would be welcome to address DVU meetings in 1981, and by 1982 had managed to win Irving's services as a star speaker for the DVU.39 In that year Irving spoke for the DVU in 10 German cities on 'the unatoned Holocaust - the expulsion of the Germans' ['Der ungesühnte Holocaust - die Vertreibung der Deutschen'].40 On 9 May 1982 Irving received the DNZ's European Freedom Prize ['Europäischen Freiheitspreises der Deutschen National Zeitung'].41 By the end of 1982 the DVU had apparently paid Irving somewhere in the region of DM 100,000 for his speeches and 'services' ['Verdienste'].42 A model of blocks of 10 speeches, initially at a fee of DM 2,000 per speech, later reduced to DM 1,500, was to continue until 1987.43

3.2.11.Irving later wrote that he 'always spoke as an historian, never as a politician' to the DVU.44 Although in the strictest sense Irving spoke on 'historical' topics, the very platform he spoke on (DVU meetings and rallies) gave them an explicitly political character. Added to this is the convolution between the attractions of Irving and his topics to old RWEs and that these same people constituted the bedrock of DVU support. The topics Irving was requested to talk on were both historically and politically tendentious, in the sense stated by the OPC when they talked of the DVU's playing down of the crimes of National Socialism.

3.2.12.For instance Frey wrote to Irving on 23 July 1983, giving him precise instructions for his forthcoming lectures.

... we agreed during our phone-call yesterday, that you should tackle the topic of the guilt of aerial terror in your September lecture series. You might perhaps take the occasion in the various towns to briefly go into the corresponding attacks. Regarding the topic as a whole there is a general interest everywhere in who began when and where with aerial terror and in what way? Which related planning occurred from what reasons and under what conditions when and where? What aerial attacks were allowed for in international law and which break international law? How are the three main accusations against the Germans since then [World War II], namely Warsaw, Rotterdam and Coventry, to be judged? [...] Why were attacks preferred on working-class areas to attacks on exclusive residential districts? What was the German answer and how did it correspond to the bombardments of allied planes in terms of the number of bombs dropped, the intensity of detonation, the loss of housing and the death rate? How are the Allied bombardments of 1945 to be classified, for example Dresden, when the war had long been decided? How many deaths did the Allied attacks on concentration camps and ships with concentration camp prisoners cause? Perhaps the lecture should finish with an examination of the Nuremberg trial and Rudolf Hess. [...] Please leave Hitler and the Jews unmentioned.45

3.2.13.As well as orchestrating the contents of Irving's speeches, Frey carefully controlled their timing in order for the DVU to maximum political impact from them. In 1982 an American drama series entitled 'Holocaust' was to be repeated on German television. The first showing in 1979 had been watched by millions of Germans and despite the controversy surrounding it is considered as representing a mile-stone in German public consciousness about the Holocaust.46 With respect to Irving's forthcoming lectures Frey wrote to Irving,

I suggest the next series of lectures begin on Friday 12 November [1982] and end on Sunday 21 November (10 meetings) on the same conditions. A theme worth considering could be "Who bears responsibility for the unatoned holocaust of the expulsion?" [i.e. of the Germans from former Reich territories which fell to eastern Europe]. I hope we will formulate this more succinctly and impressively. In the enclosed copy you'll find the dates for the repeat of the Hollywood-Holocaust soap on "German" television. During these days you will speak, at a different time, about the expulsion holocaust and provide the true historical accompanying music to the horror slush. Please again leave Hitler and the Jews out completely.47

3.2.14.Irving's speaking tour of 1982 was indeed titled 'The unatoned Holocaust - the expulsion of the Germans' ['Der ungesühnte Holocaust - die Vertreibung der Deutschen'] and was a political attempt to counter-act the TV-series 'Holocaust'.48

3.2.15.Irving's DVU sponsored speaking-tours coincided with carefully contrived publicity-campaigns in the DNZ. His latest speeches and books were heralded and marketed by Frey's publishing concerns. Irving also played an important part in the DVU's veneration of former Nazi heroes. For instance on 9 January 1983 Irving delivered a memorial speech ['Gedenkrede'] on the death of Oberst Hans-Ulrich Rudel.49

3.2.16.As of 1987 Frey also invited Irving to contribute articles to the DNZ although Irving had long fed Frey with documents he felt might interest him, the DVU, or the readers of the DNZ.50 For instance in 1984 Irving offered Frey and the National News [National Zeitung] photos taken in the immediate aftermath of the ' "freeing"' [' "Befreiung"' - Irving's quotation marks] of Dachau concentration camp, purporting to show executed camp guards. If the photos were to be used Irving hoped he would receive his usual commission ['Verwendungsgebühr'].51 In 1984 Irving was asked by Frey if he had anything 'exonerating' ['Entlastendes'] in the case of the notorious Klaus Barbie, and if so to send it to Barbie's daughter.52

3.2.17.In 1984 Irving was requested on Frey's behalf to investigate certain names in the Berlin Document Centre for their backgrounds and activities during the Third Reich. He was offered DM 2,000 for the work plus costs and was to pass the documents on to the DVU.53 The list of over 100 names included many prominent left-wing and liberal personalities in Germany such as Rudolf Augstein, Joseph Beuys, Heinrich Böll, Marion Gräfin von Dönhoff, Günter Grass, Eugen Kogon, Erich Kuby and Harry Ristock.54 Frey wrote to Irving that the DVU themselves were not in a position to do the work because the 'incriminated person' ['Belastete'] would have to be mad ['verrückt'] to allow them access to their files.55 Irving duly wrote to the Berlin Document Centre claiming that he was researching the names as part of his work on Reich Marshall Hermann Göring.56 The Director Daniel P. Simon politely told Irving that '...you should know that Mr. Frey, who is not authorized to receive information from our files, has on several occasions in the past tried to obtain information from the BDC.'57

3.2.18.In his reply Irving made clear that his activities for Frey and the DVU were political.

It is true that I am familiar with Dr Gerhard Frey. He is a strange character, his own enemy sometimes, but one of the few people on the Right putting his money where his mouth is in the fight against the Far Left. That is why I place my oratory at his disposal. It helps to keep the Right Wing in the fringe, I hope.58

3.2.19.It would seem that the list was declined by the Berlin Document Centre, but alone Irving's attempt to undertake such work for Frey speaks for the political nature of Irving's relations to the DVU.59

3.2.20.The case became public in 1988 surrounding a scandal about documents being purloined from the Centre. In the course of the discussion Irving himself admitted the details of his political work for the DVU in 1984.60 In 1989 Irving tried to re-approach the Centre for research materials, and was reminded of his statements to the media and informed that passing materials on to 'someone whom you knew had been refused access to the BDC...with the prospect of receiving money' constituted 'a grave misuse of the privilege of access to the BDC.'61 As he recorded in his dairy 5 July 1989: '...writing long letters..., and to the Berlin Document Centre, apologizing for my 1984 lapse (Dr Frey asked me to "research" there for him). I don't think it will work.'62

3.2.20. More importantly perhaps, and interestingly for Irving's later fortunes in Germany, Irving consistently acted as a pawn in the DVU's strategy of using 'the court-room as political forum' ['Der Gerichtssaal als Forum der Politik'].63 Until 1988 there seems to have been little danger that Irving would in any way damage the DVU by questioning the reality of Holocaust as such. Nevertheless Frey made it repeatedly clear to Irving that he was on no account to even talk about Hitler or the Jews, particularly for benefit of the DVU's media image.64 This included Irving's pet thesis at the time that Hitler had not ordered or even known of the Holocaust.65

3.2.21.It is clear that the strategy related to the limits the law in Germany sets on denialist statements, and the DVU's good democratic image. On 29 April 1983, Frey wrote to Irving that

...during the forthcoming lecture series I ask you strictly to observe that we should give even the malicious no chance whatsoever to unpunishably accuse us of any glorification of Hitler or the NS era, let alone justification of the persecution of the Jews.... On no account do we want the vanished NS, the dead Hitler, and as always leave out everything which directly or indirectly touches on the Jews.66

3.2.21. In discussing his forthcoming lecture series on the Nuremberg trial Frey wrote to Irving in 1985.

At the same time I am presuming that you will steer completely clear of Hitler and the Jews, because both topics could only be our ruin. Even if you say something absolutely accurate about the two topics it will be turned around, misinterpreted, and in the end must even serve for bans and other prosecutions. The more objective your presentation, the more unassailable.67

3.2.22.The DVU's strategy was thus a tactical and preventative one, strictly avoiding all possible excuses for incurring adverse publicity or the unwelcome attentions of the authorities. From 1981 to 1987 Irving, who at the time can be considered a 'soft' revisionist, would seem to have no trouble conforming to Frey's requests. If such publicity nevertheless surfaced then the DVU's practiced legal machinery was brought to bear. In the mid 1980s the DVU and Irving mounted a number of successful legal attacks, serving injunctions on newspapers and organisations who suggested that Irving in any way denied the Holocaust or was a supporter of the so-called '6 million lie'.

3.2.23.Although Irving himself had had connections with German right-wing radical organizations since the 1970s, he was only mentioned for the first time in the OPC's 1982 report.

The British writer David Irving (44),who spoke in 5 series of lectures in numerous German cities was the most frequent speaker at DVU rallies including on the "Nuremberg Trials - Justice or Arbitrary Law", the "Truth about the Morgenthau Plan" or "The Guilt of the Holocaust of Aerial Terror".68

3.2.24.The Schleswig-Holstein VSB noted his speeches in 1982 and commented that as a speaker for the DVU Irving was keeping company with the old Nazis like Otto-Ernst Remer and Hans-Ulrich Rudel.69 The 1982 Baden-Württemberg VSB stressed that Irving had been a speaker at DVU meetings 'for quite some time'.70

3.2.24. In 1983, Irving's speech at the Munich rally honouring the RWE and former Wehrmacht Colonel, Hans-Ulrich Rudel was noted.71 He was identified as one of the DVU's 'principal speakers' apart from Frey himself.72

3.2.25.In 1984 Irving's speech to the DVU rally on 10 March 1984 was noted, when Irving spoke on 'Freedom for Rudolf Hess'. He had stated that Hess was lured to Great Britain and tortured there.73 His June 1984 tour was likewise noted. He spoke at the annual DVU rally in Passau on the 4 August 1984 about 'The martyrdom (ordeal) of Rudolf Hess and its true background' and was also noted as accusing Winston Churchill of having executed an underhand warmongering policy.74

3.2.261985 was the first year in which some of the VSBs described Irving as a 'right-wing extremist publicist'75 or as a 'right-wing extremist historian'.76 Irving was noted as having spoken at several DVU rallies.77 These lectures dealt with Rudolf Hess, the question of war guilt, the Nuremberg Trial, and the Nazi leadership.78 He lectured several times in southern Germany on the topic 'The 8th of May: Should the Germans pay forever?' Importantly the OPC noted that Irving 'questioned the extent of the extermination of the Jews.'79

3.2.27.In June 1985 he was given the 'Hans-Ulrich-Rudel-Award', donated by Gerhard Frey.80 The award was officially presented to Irving for his servicower Saxony noted that 'Irving in his speeches and writings plays down the unjust system of the Third Reich. He supports the opinion that Hitler neither ordered the extermination of the Jews nor did he know anything about it. Irving tries hard to improve the reputations of former leading Nazi politicians.'81 In November 1985 he again lectured several times in Bavaria on the Nuremberg Trial. 'He proclaimed the Nuremberg War Tribunal to be a sham in which evidence was falsified and manipulated, testimonies bought and confessions acquired through torture.'82

3.2.28.On the 19 January 1986 Irving spoke at a DVU rally honouring the former fighter pilot Colonel Walter Dahl. Irving described the deceased as the 'perfect German soldier'.83 He participated in additional DVU meetings dealing with the issues of Rudolf Hess and the 'depriving of the German people of its rights'.84

3.2.29.In 1987 Irving remained a frequent DVU speaker.85 He spoke at the annual DVU rally in Passau in August 1987 on 'The secrecy of the martyrdom of Rudolf Hess'.86

3.2.30.Thus in the 1980s Irving was a leading speaker in what is described as the tradition of 'old' RWE represented by the DVU. This old RWE line of thought included playing down the crimes of the NS period, questioning the extent of the extermination of the Jews, questioning German war guilt, denouncing the Nuremberg Trial as a sham, praising military and political personnel who actively identified with the Nazi system (like Dahl, Rudel, or Hess), and an aggressive rhetoric against the Allies. Irving pandered to a barely disguised fascination with the 'heroes' of the Nazi regime amongst the adherents of old RWE, particularly with his praise for the alleged martyrdom of the deputy 'Führer' Rudolf Hess, and would imply a certain fascination his own part.87 Most importantly he himself had been labelled a right-wing extremist by the German constitutional authorities.

Notes

30. Martun Mußgnug became the
party's leader after 1969. A decade later, with Gunter Deckert at the
helm, the NPD had moved to a more aggresive and extreme position. Gunther Deckert was later to become a preferred contact for Irving(see below)

32. For a long time there was no clear definition of how radical is differentiated from right-wing extremism. Radical was often used to describe a person or asn organization as on the fringes of a democratic system, but not beyond. Since 1974 the OPC has defined right-wing extremism as it is stated above. Althought there are still debates on the definition of right-wing estremism, the majority of researchers refer to this concept.

36.
The Hoax of the 20th Century was translated and published in Germany by Udo Walendy, a right-wing extremist and published by "Verlag fur Volkstum und Zeitgeschichtsforschung' in Vlotho in 1977. Irving was to later have connections to both Walendy and the publishing home

43. Dr Gerhard Frey to Irving, 8 December 1982; Dr Gerhard Frey to Irving, 31 December 1982. In 1985 Irving asked Frey if his fee could be increased from DM 1,500 or if they could close a firm contract together to help him purchase a flat in Mayfair, because to loose it would mean a loss of prestige['Prestigeverlust']. Irving to Dr. Gerhard Frey, 14 March 1985.

65. In anticipation of a planned television discussion on 21 November 1982, Frey wrote to Irving that he should be 'very reserved'[recht zurückhaltend] on whether Hitler gave an order or not. Dr. Gerhard Frey to Irving, 12 October 1982.